Thousands of Jewish soldiers and officers fought, on both sides of the war.
In Italy, there were fifty Jewish generals – one Jewish general for every thou-
sand Italian Jews. In Austria-Hungary, most Jewish officers were reserve
officers at the start of the war, mainly in the medical, communications, and
transportation corps. During the first year of war, however, the decimation of
the front-line and combat officer corps brought most of these Jewish officers
to the front, further validating the emancipation of the Jews.
Russian Jews bore the brunt of the war. Much of the Pale of Settlement
was located in the heart of the Eastern Front. Jewish civilians were ravaged by
both sides, particularly during the chaotic slash-and-burn retreat of the tsar’s
army. Hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews became refugees. Nearly half
fled to the interior of Russia. In recognition of this changing demographic
reality, in 1915 the tsar abolished the Pale of Settlement. The demographic
shift continued unabated into the 1930s, particularly toward the two Russian
capitals. In 1915, the combined Jewish population of Moscow and St.
Petersburg was 15,000. By the early 1930s, this number exceeded 300,000.
In addition, traditional Jews in Galicia and the Pale of Settlement came into
contact with more progressive, assimilated Jews, which helps explain the
rapid growth of secular Jewish movements after the war.
Diplomatic initiatives by the Central Powers and the Allied forces worked
to the advantage of the Jews. Because there was no clear-cut villain like Hitler
or Mussolini, until 1916 it was unclear whether the United States would
enter the war, and on which side. A primary diplomatic aim during the first
two years of the war was to win the support of the United States. A widely
circulated myth contended that the best way to win the support of the US
government was to win the support of the American Jewish elite. To this end,
German and British officials approached the leaders of the World Zionist
Organization with a promise of a Jewish homeland if the United States
entered on their side and helped them take Palestine from the Turks.
This is the background to the Balfour Declaration, issued by the British
government following the capture of Palestine. In this declaration, the
British committed to the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people.” The last-minute change in the language of this text from
“the national home” to “a national home” would lay the basis for subsequent
disputes as to the specifications of this homeland. In any case, this was a
major triumph for Zionism. In retrospect, the Balfour Declaration turned out
to be a paper tiger, a sweeping statement infused with idealism that was later
set aside in the face of more urgent problems.
Communist revolutions, 1917–19
In the aftermath of the war, the situation of Jews throughout Europe and the
Middle East was transformed either by the triumph of communism, national-
ism, or the triumph of nationalism over communism. The devastation of the
206 From renewal to devastation, 1914–45